“Grey Zones” as a Political Technology: The Transformation of Territoriality in Hybrid Conflicts

Abstract

This article examines the phenomenon of “grey zones,” territories with blurred sovereignty, as a key element of contemporary hybrid conflicts. While existing research often treats unrecognized entities as geopolitical anomalies, their function as a political technology of subjectivity manipulation remains under-theorized. The central purpose of this paper is to analyze the political logic of “grey zones,” defined as a dual strategy of simultaneously constructing fictitious agency for these territories while deconstructing the legitimate statehood of the target nation.

The methodological framework is based on an interdisciplinary synthesis that combines the tools of critical geopolitics, security studies, and cultural memory theory. This approach is applied to a comparative analysis of post-Soviet unrecognized entities. Critical geopolitics helps to deconstruct the spatial dimension, security studies frames the hybrid conflict context, and the theory of cultural memory is crucial for understanding how alternative identities are manufactured to legitimize this manipulation of subjectivity.

The results demonstrate that the creation of “grey zones” is a deliberate political process. It involves projecting a narrative of self-determination and autonomy onto the territory (constructing fictitious subjectivity) through instruments like managed elections, passportization, and the creation of a separate collective memory. Simultaneously, it aims to portray the target state as a “failed state” incapable of governing (deconstructing its legitimate subjectivity). This creates a managed ambiguity that allows the patron state to project power while denying direct responsibility. The article concludes that “grey zones” transform territoriality from a static, international-legal category of control into a dynamic political technology for manipulating subjectivity. This process, which consists of the simultaneous construction of fictitious actors and the deconstruction of legitimate ones, is identified as a key feature of contemporary hybrid conflicts, challenging traditional understandings of sovereignty and international order.